For you people who've been flying these for a while, and any Skydio reps; Can we start a discussion about "scheduled Maintenance" ? or MTBF?
This from a sample pt 107 exam:
[Yes, because you should know what the mean time between failures is or have an idea on what are the typical problems certain drones encounter so you can PREVENT crashes.]
Wrong. "UAS does not need a required maintenance schedule."
[I can hear it now from some of the droners “Maintenance…..We don’t need no stinkin maintenance.”]
Wrong. "When the FAA requires you to, following an accident."
[It is cheaper to do maintenance on the front end rather than on the pieces on the backend.]
The only scheduled maintenance guidance I recall coming from Skydio is "Clean all 7 lenses before and after each flight" "inspect blades for damage after each flight"
Nothing about batteries or anything else. I know from operating lithium powered TV cameras that when the battery gets old enough it will say it's fully charged, operate normally for an unpredictable period of time and suddenly w/o warning drop dead. in the case of a TV camera the worst thing is you miss some vitally important video. I have one time called Anton Bauer and gave them the serial number and they told me approximately when that was about to happen so I could replace it before then. It would be horrible to be flying a drone a couple hundred feet in the air and have the battery suddenly die.
It'd be nice if Skydio had a mechanism for advising about the end of life of these batteries.
What else can you guys think of or have any experience or knowledge of?
This from a sample pt 107 exam:
Under what condition should the operator of a small UA establish scheduled maintenance protocol?UA.V.F.K1
Correct
Correct. "When the manufacturer does not provide a maintenance schedule."[Yes, because you should know what the mean time between failures is or have an idea on what are the typical problems certain drones encounter so you can PREVENT crashes.]
Wrong. "UAS does not need a required maintenance schedule."
[I can hear it now from some of the droners “Maintenance…..We don’t need no stinkin maintenance.”]
Wrong. "When the FAA requires you to, following an accident."
[It is cheaper to do maintenance on the front end rather than on the pieces on the backend.]
The only scheduled maintenance guidance I recall coming from Skydio is "Clean all 7 lenses before and after each flight" "inspect blades for damage after each flight"
Nothing about batteries or anything else. I know from operating lithium powered TV cameras that when the battery gets old enough it will say it's fully charged, operate normally for an unpredictable period of time and suddenly w/o warning drop dead. in the case of a TV camera the worst thing is you miss some vitally important video. I have one time called Anton Bauer and gave them the serial number and they told me approximately when that was about to happen so I could replace it before then. It would be horrible to be flying a drone a couple hundred feet in the air and have the battery suddenly die.
It'd be nice if Skydio had a mechanism for advising about the end of life of these batteries.
What else can you guys think of or have any experience or knowledge of?
